Tapping and Strumming

An important part of playing acoustic tap songs is that you have enough control to switch from tapping and strumming without losing beat or your handle on the guitar.


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Exercise Number 1



I know you are probably tired of playing trite little major exercises, but hold on for just a little longer and we will be playing more complex song structured riffs. For this exercise strum using your four fingers and strum somewhere around the 12th fret, make sure you don't flail your hand too much just make a tight little strum. The tuning is Open D: D A D F# A D
Here we go:


Try repeating this twice staying on beat (tap your foot if you have to), and start very slow just so you can get the transition from strumming to tapping.

Exercise Number 2

Now we will work on speed transfers you don't have to necessarily play this faster you just need to play it accurately, remember the difference between a good tapper and a bad tapper isn't speed but accuracy. In this exercise you will need to tighten you strum even more and keep it close to the strings. Once again this is in open D
And 1, 2, 3, 4 GO!

There is only one chord change, but thats only added for style, so as you speed this exercise up you should get quite frustrated with how much accuracy and control it takes to play.